Quartzcacher = Almost Stuck and 2 Flat Tires

My daughter was out of school this last Friday, Feb 27th, so I took off and did what any loving father would do........take her geocaching. I scoped out an area of the state that I could clean up and get find #700. Ashlyn and I left the comforts of home at 8 am and arrived in Mountain Valley around 9 am. We were poking along and went after a cemetery cache and the GPS was going crazy when Ashlyn said there is somebody coming. Low and behold it was Quartzcacher, Great man of the Jessieville Woods. QC informed me that I was on the wrong side of the fence. We jumped the fence and found the cache. The day started out pretty good running into the owner of the majority of caches in this area. He mentioned that he had nothing going on that day. Which is a polite way of begging to ride along. We went back to his house and off we went in my 2005 Honda Civic Coupe red in color. This car is the same car that has been on a wild ride to "Buck Knob" and another somewhat adventurous ride with Cachemates in Hot Springs. If you remember I have wrote in a previous post that nothing stands in my way of getting a cache. Hmmmmmm.
Off we went to Hollis and skipped a couple of caches that were on the other side of the road that I could get on my way back down. We went to my very first ARHICK cache at the "Hollis Water Hole." I thought about not doing it because I did not want to write a memoir of the adventure on getting this cache, but I did it anyway and wrote a nice log. Made it to the last cache at the look-out and back down we came. We stopped at "Dro Wired." I pulled off the road as far as I could and looked at QC and said, "I guess you won't be going with me on this one are you?" The reason I asked that is because the car was leaning to the passenger side about 45 degrees and when I got out I thought I saw QC put his hand out the window to prevent the car from rolling over. Grabbed the cache and got back in the car and attempted to pull back on the HWY. It just rained a bit up there the day before and when I gave it gas we slipped down into the ditch even more so I floored it and yelled "we goin' ta make it!!!" We went about 15 feet and bogged down. Tried reverse and moved a little and put it back in drive and moved some more. So I began to do this manuever, D R D R D R D R D R D R D RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Most of you country back road guys know what that means. We finally got moving in reverse and mud was slinging all over the place and the speedometer was reading like 40mph but we were going like 5mph. Finally got back on the HWY and pulled over to the road across from the cache where I should have parked in the first place and checked everything out. Looked good but very muddy. Usually you don't see a Honda Civic with mud on top of the car and hood and slung up on the side of the doors. That is usually reserved for the 4 wheel drive trucks. Went on down the road and grabbed the loop of caches and according to my "miscalculated" numbers I needed just 2 more to get to find #700. So we went after 4 caches on the "Road to the Pinnacle." Was driving the car pretty hard through here because of time issues. Got the last cache and we were on our way back to the HWY when the road got "rough" all of a sudden. I thought for a moment and about 15 seconds later I stopped and said we have a flat. Sure nuff. We had a flat. We get out and changed the flat and some guy in a jeep pulls up and is lost. As we talk to him I let the car down and was looking back at the rear passenger tire and began to say NO NO NO NOOOOOOOOO!! We had a nearly flat tire back there now. We looked at it and agreed that we could make it to get the tires fixed in H.S.V. The lost guy follows and about a mile down the road I come to an abrupt halt and yell mountain lion. I got out and got my cell phone camera ready and snuck over to the burnt leaning log that looked like a panther and got back in the car and left. We made it back to QC's house and QC followed us back to the tire and lube shop in H.S.V. and I gladly paid $25 to get my tires fixed and shook QC's hand and said thank you.
We had a very EVENTFUL adventure. One that will not be forgotten. I had loads of fun that day. QC made it all the funner.
By the way......I needed 47 caches to get to #700. I miscalculated and only needed 37. We could have avoided the whole mess, but then it wouldn't have been as fun.

It's amazing some of the things we get ourselves into just to sign a piece of paper. One thing about it, if you were going to have trouble, you couldn't have picked a better guy to have along with you.

At least you took a pen or pencil along and didn't have to walk out somewhere and get one. Or even better write with the end of a charred stick. I have threatened to sign in blood on more than one occasion. Great story wish I could have been along for the ride.

Dentful spins a pretty good yarn. The only trouble is, that it's all TRUE! I sure wish someone could have been there with a video camera. I especially loved the part about the "mountain lion". When he spotted the thing, I grabbed my camera just in case, and jumped out of the vehicle (which was listing pretty badly to my side by now). I clicked what I thought was the button to turn it on, and casully ejected my batteries all over the road! Oh yeah, my finest moment. Anyway, I scooped them up in record time, and slammed them back in the now vacant battery compartment. Still believing, that I had time to get a shot of the ever elusive panther, I started to snap some shots. Anyone need some nice pics of a burned out snag? HAHA!
Oh yeah, why was Dentful in such a white knuckled hurry? There was pizza waiting on the other end of his voyage back to Pike County. Perfectly understandable in my book.
Well, all's well that ends well, and we limped on back to the Village and the tire shop, where we were taken care of. I was waiting for the checkered flag as we pulled into the Village Lube Express, but not one was to be seen.
I already have a cache container in mind, and a spot picked out for my newest cache. It will be called A Wild Ride. It will be a puzzle cache, and the requirement is that you have to take and survive a trip into the Arkansas backwoods with Dentful1. It will be a 5/5, for sure!
And just think, if not for geocaching, I would have been on the couch watching Oprah, or Ellen or some other mind numbing drivel. Thanks for the wild ride, Aaron!

One thing about it, if you were going to have trouble, you couldn't have picked a better guy to have along with you.

Thanks, Woodwalker! I'm not sure that I would have been much help, other than knowing which way to walk!

Guess what?! I got a fever, and the only prescription...is more cowbell!!

A caching trip with QC is always an adventure even if you are in town. I may soon have my weekends free agian at the expense of a paycheck but at least I'll have more caching time. Hopefully I can talk QC into a few more adventures.

That sounds like a great adventure! You know the trip just would not have been what it was had the "bad" things not happened. I bet you guys will be talking about this one for a while and at future events! Next time, snap a few pics or video of a honda civic rally car slinging the brown stuff!

Lets see.......we were caching with QC and also had a flat tire!!!! Coincidence????? He was a great sport to help NW with the flat while they sent RBG to find the challenging cache. We had a great time despite the setback! Hoping for more smilies and less flats, NW and RBG

Well shucks! I made a trip to hide some caches yesterday, and they were grading the road I was on. So this morning, you guessed it; flat tire. Maybe I am jinxed! I will have to start taking extra spares with me I guess. Oh well, if ya ain't messin' up, ya ain't havin fun! I may be having too much fun.

Guess what?! I got a fever, and the only prescription...is more cowbell!!